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Demo for Geese at City Hall Thursday, 8/12

On July 8, without any prior notice, the Feds rounded up hundreds of Prospect Park adult and baby geese into crates and suffocated them to death. The news of these covert killings prompted a furious outcry from members of the press, the public, and certain politicians.

And the slaughter will go on, as the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, the Port Authority, and the USDA announced their intention to kill geese off from city property within a seven-mile zone around JFK and LaGuardia Airports. This plan will exterminate two-thirds of the goose population from New York State, which is approximately 170,000 birds. This is the second year of geese killings, a response to 2009 US Airways Flight 1549 emergency landing,after the airliner flew into a flock of migratory Canadian geese. Animal rights groups have decried these killings as senseless, as there notable humane methods of controlling the geese population. In 2009, a proposal by HSUS and GeesePeace to help the city implement a humane plan was rejected by Mayor Bloomberg’s office, Port Authority, Parks Department and the USDA. As a further absurdity, In Defense of Animals has noted that “the Prospect Park geese, and those in other NYC parks and waterways, are not the same type of geese who flew into the US Airways flight in 2009. Those were migratory geese, traveling at 5,000 feet. Local geese (classified as resident geese) don’t fly as far or as high. The distinction was made using DNA analysis of the feather remains.”

You have an opportunity to voice your outrage alongside IDA Thursday afternoon on the steps of City Hall:

What: Demo in opposition to killing New York City geese. Join IDA President Scotlund Haisley, and City Council Members Brad Lander, Letitia James and Stephen Levin, plus State Senator Eric Adams.

When: Thursday, August 12, 12 – 1 p.m. (Please arrive about 10 minutes early, as you will need to pass through a security checkpoint to enter the City Hall area. The rally will end promptly at 1 p.m.)